Professor Young Richard Kim (University of Illinois Chicago) will deliver a public lecture in which he explores the historical legacy, reception, and impact of the Council of Nicaea on the history of Christianity. This Council convened in 325 CE, producing the Nicene Creed, a statement of Christian doctrine that has remained an important element of Christian identity ever since, both for Christians who have embraced its tenets and those who have defined their communities in opposition to it. In this lecture, Professor Kim will examine this history and the Council’s role in Christian identity formation over the last 1700 years.

2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. The decisions made by the bishops who gathered there in 325 CE had a lasting impact on the historical course of Christianity. The most enduring legacy of this council is the Nicene Creed, which almost two millennia later is still recited regularly on Sundays in churches around the world. The widespread use of this creed suggests a kind of doctrinal unity between diverse Christian traditions, a unity that the Council of Nicaea itself sought to foster and enforce amid a divisive theological dispute; such unity proved fleeting, even from the very start. Paradoxically, the Council and its Creed became the grounds on which later Christian denominations differentiated themselves from one another. The subsequent reception, contestation, and (in some cases) rejection of the Nicene Creed thus provides a powerful lens through which to understand the history of Christianity from late antiquity up to the present day. This lecture will explore the Council of Nicaea's legacy from a long, historical perspective, to consider its reception and enduring impact.

Professor Kim is the Associate Professor and Head of Classics and Mediterranean Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. He also edited The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Nicaea, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021.

This event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Department of History, Department of Religion, and the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program.